Goodbye Bonnie Springs

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Bonnie Springs is a marvelous family business ranch packed with animals, a wax museum, a saloon, a chapel, gift shops and other things including a restaurant, located behind the gift shop next to the petting zoo. The World Famous Bonnie Springs Ranch Restaurant and Bar has very amazing food. Its menu includes things from breakfast to burgers and sandwiches, not to mention the wonderful train ride and the petting zoo offers a variety of animals including peacocks, chickens, wallabies, goats, tortoises, and much more.

The zombie bus is also an amazing experience. Getting the chance to shoot paint balls at the zombies from the bus. Is it really that scary, or is it more fun? People 15 and younger must be accompanied by an adult to make sure they’re not as scared.

The ranch is located just 35 minutes west from the Las Vegas Strip, and just a 5 minute drive beyond Red Rock Canyon, 16395 Bonnie Springs Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89124 is the actual address. It’s a very beautiful ranch leading to the Red Rock Canyon, and many people enjoy visiting.

9th grader, Dylan Horvath said “I’ve been there multiple times and it was always really fun and a beautiful place, the animals and all the memories I have there are wonderful.”

Bonnie Springs is actually now being sold to turn it into a construction project for homes. The owners, Alan and April, children of Bonnie Levinson, the founder of Bonnie Springs who died at age of 94 in 2016, are selling the ranch to developer Joel Laub and his attorney partner J. Randall Jones. Some students at PVHS aren’t very happy about that.

“I feel salty about it being sold because it should stay open for other kids to have the opportunity to experience it,” said 9th grader Sherrie Monjaras. It is true that all the people that have never gotten the chance to go are not going to get that chance anymore. Bonnie Springs will be closing on February 12, so that’s a chance to visit before it’s gone.

Developer Joel Laub has actually been involved in real estate for over 30 years. He became a licensed realtor in Nevada in 1977, and soon after became president of Roberts Realty Land Company.

Joel LaubPhoto courtesy of chapman.com

Aside from working with land, he was also the president/founder and CEO of Astoria Homes Corporation developing over 5,000 residential units in the Las Vegas Valley. In 2004, he was President of the Southern Nevada Home builders. Besides homes, he has also built several shopping centers.

In fact, Developer Joel Laub plans to convert Bonnie Springs into mostly custom-home lots. His plan includes a 25-room motel, a restaurant, and a 5,400-square-foot event barn. He also plans to carve out 20 residential lots that range from about 2-3 acres each, and selling them to people who would then build their own houses.

There could also be a major impact. “The land near Red Rock would be affected because it won’t be as isolated. The new lots would be there, people would move in,” said 9th grader Jasmin

Photo courtesy of sunkissedhiker.com

Sanchez. That’s a good thing since more people would be visiting Red Rock Canyon, and it’ll become more popular.

The not so good impact it would have is that the land won’t be the same anymore. “It will make the land not as pretty or exclusive as before,” said Horvath. He’s not wrong, the Red Rock land will be filled with lots, and homes and it’ll seem as another part of Las Vegas instead of the beautiful old town ranch it originally was.

Think about the animals living there. Where will they go? Will they be there and bother people or will they just have to make it through? “I think it’ll make the animals move away and it’ll make the people sad because they’ll be stealing the animals’ environment,” said Monjaras. Jasmin Sanchez on the other hand said that all of the wild animals wouldn’t have a home, and that the people would be disrupted by animal noises. It all depends on the animals, whether they’re friendly or not. Let’s just all hope they find a home, and that Bonnie Springs will always be remembered.